# Derived data

Also written derived information.

*https://stockmarketstack.com/glossary/derived-data · next to Stock Market Data APIs*

**Definition:** A value calculated from exchange data that cannot be reverse engineered back into that data or used as a substitute for it. Exchanges licence it separately: a derived number carrying a price is usually fee liable at the underlying product's rate, while volume-only and volume-weighted figures may be distributed free. Multi-security output such as an index is exempt from subscriber fees but reported as non-display use.

## How it works

Derived data is the third licensing axis, after who reads the number and where the number goes.
Nasdaq's data policies define it as information generated in whole or in part from exchange
information such that what is generated cannot be reverse engineered to recreate the exchange
information, or used to create other data recognisable as a reasonable substitute for it. The named
examples are instruments and aggregates rather than analytics: swaps, swaptions, spread bets,
contracts for difference, volume-only data, and volume-weighted price.

Read the definition twice, because it is a fence rather than a category. The question is not "did I
do arithmetic on it". It is whether the output either reconstructs the input or stands in for it. A
last price rounded, delayed by a second, republished as a "fair value" or wrapped in a single-symbol
index is a substitute; a firm-wide risk number computed from ten thousand quotes is not. The
calculation's sophistication is irrelevant, which is why a derived-data question cannot be answered
by describing your formula.

## Where the line actually falls

Nasdaq's policy puts three notes under the definition, and between them they draw the line more
usefully than the definition does.

- **Price in, underlying rate out.** Derived data that contains price data is generally fee liable at
  the underlying product's rates. So the derived category is not a discount on a number that still
  carries a price in it.
- **One-for-one trackers are the underlying.** Single-security instruments the exchange supports, or
  instruments that track a financial instrument one for one, are fee liable at the underlying rates.
  A wrapper is not a transformation.
- **Many securities in is different.** For equities, creating multi-security information such as an
  index is exempt from subscriber fees — but the distributor must report the non-display devices
  involved. The fee does not vanish; it changes shape, from per-subscriber to
  [non-display use](https://stockmarketstack.com/glossary/non-display-use).

The scaling is by audience, and this is the part that surprises people building a product. Nasdaq's
US Basic derived data created and distributed externally only to non-professional subscribers is fee
liable as part of a specific derived data fee; derived data distributed to professional subscribers is
fee liable at the regular per-subscriber or per-user rate. In other words the same calculation is
priced by how many end customers see it and which category they fall in — the
[professional subscriber](https://stockmarketstack.com/glossary/professional-subscriber) question again, one layer up. And a firm
receiving a real-time feed still owes at least the internal distributor fee for receiving it with
derived information, so nothing here is a route to taking a feed for nothing.

Index values are the sharpest case, and the tape's own delayed data policy makes it explicit from the
other direction: the plan participants extend no preferential treatment to index information, the same
contract requirements apply to delayed index values as to real-time ones, and index information is
excluded from the data elements that get the cheap delayed treatment. An index built on a venue's
prices can carry a licence of its own from the index provider on top of that — the assembled
membership history is a licensed product in its own right, which
[historical index constituents](https://stockmarketstack.com/guides/historical-index-constituents) covers.

## Why it matters here

Three practical readings, for anybody deciding what a screener or a chart may output.

**A screen output is not automatically yours.** The ranking, the score and the indicator column are
derived from somebody's prices, and if that output leaves your organisation it is both a derived data
question and a [redistribution](https://stockmarketstack.com/glossary/redistribution) question. The second one is usually the
expensive answer, and the first does not neutralise it.

**"Computed locally" is a technical fact, not a licensing one.** Running the calculation in your own
process changes nothing about the prices that went in. This is why vendors that ship indicator
endpoints — [Twelve Data](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/twelve-data) and
[Alpha Vantage](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/alpha-vantage) among the cards here — have terms about what you may publish,
not just rate limits.

**Ask the vendor which axis they have already paid for.** A vendor holding a distributor licence may
or may not hold the derived and index rights beside it, and it is not a question the pricing page
answers. A vendor that itemises exchange fees, such as [Databento](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/databento), at least lets
you see which products are on the account.

[What real-time market data costs](https://stockmarketstack.com/guides/real-time-market-data-fees) has the fee stack these
categories sit in, and [entitlement](https://stockmarketstack.com/glossary/entitlement) explains the per-subscriber counting the
derived rules keep referring back to.

## Where you will meet this

- [Twelve Data](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/twelve-data.md)
- [Intrinio](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/intrinio.md)
- [Databento](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/databento.md)
- [Alpha Vantage](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/alpha-vantage.md)
- [Financial Datasets](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/financial-datasets.md)
- [Financial Modeling Prep](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/financial-modeling-prep.md)
- [ORTEX](https://stockmarketstack.com/tools/ortex.md)

## FAQ

### If I publish a moving average instead of the price, have I escaped the licence?

Not by default. The test is whether the original data can be recovered from what you publish or substituted by it, and a single-security indicator computed from a recent price usually fails that test in the publisher's direction. Nasdaq's policy says derived data containing price data is generally fee liable at the underlying product rates, which is where an indicator on one symbol lands.

### Which derived numbers are actually free to pass on?

Narrower ones than people hope, and only where a venue says so. Nasdaq names volume-only data and volume-weighted price data as single-security derived products its distributors may provide free of charge. That is a list, not a principle, and it belongs to one exchange's policy. Any other calculation needs checking against the venue whose prices went into it.

## Sources

1. [Nasdaq US Equities and Options Data Policies, version 2.6](https://www.nasdaqtrader.com/content/AdministrationSupport/Policy/USEquitiesandOptionsDataPolicies.pdf) — Nasdaq, 2024-06-01
2. [Delayed Market Data (Network A and Network B) Policy](https://www.ctaplan.com/publicdocs/ctaplan/notifications/trader-update/Policy%20-%20Delayed%20Market%20Data.pdf) — Consolidated Tape Association, read 2026-09-21
3. [NYSE Market Data Policy Package](https://www.nyse.com/publicdocs/nyse/data/NYSE_Market_Data_Complete_Policy_Package.pdf) — New York Stock Exchange, read 2026-09-21

*Last updated 2026-09-21. A reference page, corrected in place — not a dated post.*